Travel
Cirencester – Stalybridge

Cirencester – Stalybridge

The next morning, it was time to leave the Cotswolds behind to head to the North, however not without we made one last visit to Gloucester Cathedral. We planned to make the drive to Gloucester in the afternoon, however Bernie did a quick check of their opening times prior to leaving only to find that a large portion part of Gloucester Cathedral was scheduled to be closed until 4.00pm. We decided to make a quick stop in the morning so that we were capable of exploring more of the cathedral.

A church or a place of worship at or near the site was established as early as Osric King of the Hwicce who established an abbey, Gloucester Abbey, in the year 679. In the year 1058, a brand new abbey was constructed, and the construction of the current building began in 1089, following an incredibly destructive fire that had occurred earlier in the year.

This was a turning point in the fortunes of the abbey, with increasing revenues and royal patronage leading to the construction of a huge church. William the Conqueror 

The cathedral is home to an altar dedicated to Edward II. This is the sole reason why it has survived the Dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII. Since his ancestor was believed to be buried in the abbey, he stayed out of the abbey, but exiled the monks and rebuilt it as a cathedral.

The cathedral was undergoing major renovations in 1818. Th and 19 The centennials and the celebration of its anniversary and celebrated its Th Anniversary in 1989. The restoration and conservation of the magnificent structure is in progress. There was scaffolding in the cloisters, where currently underway restoration projects are underway. To finance some of these projects, the cathedral was used as a location to film Perhaps most well-knownly as a substitute for Hogwarts for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

We arrived enough to be on time to take part in our 10.30am guide tour through the cathedral. So we opted to go on the tour in order to discover the most we can about the history of the cathedral in a brief amount of time. Similar to the tour yesterday, we were enthralled to hear the various styles and eras of the structure outlined and described. We enjoyed it fascinating to see the different styles and eras of the building.Gloucester Cathedral

The region was awash with minerals such as iron ore, coal clay, sand, and limestone, and the area was the home of salt boilers, potters, tobacco pipe manufacturers, lead smelters, blacksmiths, glass makers, coopers, rope makers, basketmakers. The key to this Industrial Revolution was a man known as Abraham Darby, who leased the blast furnace at Coalbrookdale and began smelting iron at the furnace in 1709 by using (coal-based) coke for his fuel instead of traditional (wood-based) charcoal. 

Continue on to Newcastle-under-Lyme and then on to Junction 19 to take the A556 across to the M56 before joining onto the M60 Manchester’s circle road. Since it was peak hours, rush hour was packed with commuters escaping Manchester’s city. After a detour away from the ring road, we went through Denton along with Hyde toward Stalybridge. We didn’t mess into the roundabout in Denton. There have been too many times that we’ve been stuck in the left lane and ended up in Denton instead of continuing along the motorway! After a short trip through Tescos at Stalybridge, we made it to Kath and Albert’s place with some things shortly after 5.00pm. After being in a hurry throughout our vacation, it’s going to be wonderful to be able to sit and relax with them over the next couple of days.

It was nice to have an at-home meal following all the eating out. After dinner, we played the cards and money Jars. Bernie cleaned up after Jo and Albert cleaned up after the beginning of Crash. I won The Quire

A match that involved Crash and Bernie won a game

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